Linkified Funk May 21, 2008: Iran and More

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(This is the country a President Obama would sit and chat with)...Iranian Justice Seeking University Students Movement and University Students Mobilization Basij will jointly sponsor International Conference on Israel's End on May 26th, 2008. According to public relations of the above mentioned Students Movement, the timing of the conference is adjusted to coincide with the sad 60th anniversary of Palestine's occupation by the Zionists. http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/021134.php#comments ..(We fighting an enemy without a name)...

1. While the President and the military brass are anxious to deny that the War On Terror has anything to do with Islam, many rank-and-file soldiers can’t help but notice that the fiercest enemies they encounter are also the most devout in their Islam, and that the jihad terrorists quote the Qur’an copiously to justify their acts of violence.

2. That noticing things like this may have led one soldier to use a Qur’an as target practice is unfortunate. If he knew what the book was, the soldier was stupid, because even if it is true that the Qur’an contains mandates for violence against unbelievers, and it is true, doing something like this will only turn into enemies some people who might otherwise not be your enemies. This is not the same thing as the Dinesh D’Souza argument that we must not speak about the elements of Islam that jihadists use to justify violence and supremacism, because doing so will turn “moderates” into “extremists” – D’Souza in that is asking us to ignore and deny the truth, which is never an effective strategy in wartime or peacetime. But that is not the same thing as avoiding unnecessary provocation that will require you to fight battles that you otherwise would not have to fight. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=32183201-DBD0-422C-B0A7-BD211C73FAC0 ..(There is nothing add)

The latest attitude to be flouted as policy is indignation. Specifically, Democratic Presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama's furious indignation at President George W. Bush's address before the Knesset last week where he celebrated Israel's 60th anniversary and extolled the US's alliance with Israel. Beyond praising the Jewish people's 4,000 year-old devotion to the Land of Israel and to liberty, Bush used the speech to warn against those who think that Iran and its terror proxies can simply be wished away through appeasement.

As the president put it, "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided. We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history." http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0508/glick052008.php3 (..The country a President Obama wants to chat with,is shutting down womens rights groups and jailing people for not being Shia) The Islamic government of Iran jailed six top Baha'i religious leaders last week, contrary to the advertised philosophy of the religion of peace and tolerance.

Iranian intelligence agents searched the homes of the six on Wednesday and then whisked them away, according to the Baha'i's World News Service. The report said the six are in Evin prison and that the arrests follow the detention in March of another Baha'i leader.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment, and the incident has not been mentioned in Iran's state-run media."Their only crime is their practice of the Baha'i faith," said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i international community to the United Nations.

The Baha'i is the largest minority religious community in Iran and the government considers its followers to be apostates. Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president, attacks against the Baha'i have increased.

About 300,000 Iranians follow the Baha'i faith out of the 65 million total population in the country. http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/192788.php ..Emissaries from inside Iran have been meeting with Iranian exiles in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere in recent weeks to deliver this provocative message, which they claim comes from pro-U.S. dissidents at the upper-most levels of the regime.“U.S. airstrikes must be powerful and sustained enough to break the myth of the regime’s absolute power and reveal the weakness of the leadership,” a former official who traveled outside of Iran recently said.The United States should target the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards Corp, the offices of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and that of his predecessor and rival, Mullah Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Iranian sources say. http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/2008/05/20/iranians-would-welcome-air-strikes-against-islamic-republic-leaders-says-timmerman-report/ ..Employees evacuate the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in southern Sweden today. Two Swedish contractors were suspected of preparing to sabotage the power plant after traces of explosives were found on one of the men, police said. (M&C)

TATP has been identified in explosive devices in a number of cases involving terrorists. Richard Reid, who attempted to down American Airlines Flight 63 with a bomb concealed in his shoe, possessed a device containing plastic explosive with a TATP trigger. It is also believed that acetone peroxide was used as the explosive in the 7 July 2005 London bombings. http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/05/2-arrested-at-swedish-nuclear-plant.html